Volkswagen Arteon 'to be replaced in US by ID.Aero' in 2024

The US-spec Volkswagen Arteon will be replaced by the all-electric Volkswagen ID.Aero in 2024, according to new reports.

After the US-market Volkswagen Passat sedan ended US production at the beginning of the year, it’s now said that the Arteon sedan, which only launched locally this year, will also be discontinued in the US in two years' time.

Australian Passat sedans were also withdrawn from private sale at the beginning of 2022.

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According to reports by Automotive News out of America, Volkswagen’s combustion sedans are finding themselves in the firing line.

It’s no secret that medium sedan buyers are a global minority, with such products often the first to be vanquished when manufacturers need to rationalise their product ranges.

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Previewed in concept form earlier this year, the ID.Aero spawns from Volkswagen’s growing family of ID. electric vehicles, built upon the MEB electric platform with the exterior and packaging of a mid-size premium sedan.

The concept boasted a 77kWh battery pack with a WLTP claimed driving range of 620 kilometres.

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Volkswagen indicates that the ID. Aero will commence production in late-2023, after ID.4 and ID.5, and is confirmed for European, Chinese and North American markets.

An Australian launch remains unconfirmed, however Volkswagen’s local arm has already committed to a 2023 launch for its ID.4 and ID.5 electric SUVs, with the ‘Kombi’ ID.Buzz also expected to join the range at a later date.

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Volkwagen ID.4 1st

The weight of expectation rests heavy on the shoulders of Volkswagen’s growing ID. family of vehicles, providing the foundation of the brand’s future portfolio as a leading battery-electric carmaker. The pivot is happening quick, because it needs to.

The Jetta, absent from the Australian market since 2018, is suffering dwindling sales in its traditionally hot US market, selling 100,453 units in 2019, but just 23,791 in the first six months of this year.

Elsewhere in the range, increasingly stringent European regulations have thrown even the future of the next-generation Golf into doubt. Though Volkswagen’s existing ID.3 hatchback, or a future iteration, would be a logical effective replacement.

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